Life off the grid in the SW Texas desert. An experiment in sustainable living. NUMBERS AT THE END OF EACH BLOG POST: temp at 8PM,high temp,low temp,rainfall,wind conditions(CalmBreezyWindyGusty). Live streaming video at http://ustre.am/TM8N YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFieldLab

Monday, September 19, 2011

bread and hornworms...

Noticed yesterday that some leaves were gone on a couple of tomato plants. This morning I saw lots of little black "grenades" under the plants. I knew right away what that meant - hornworms! I pulled about 20 off the plants today and I am sure there are more that aren't big enough to see. http://tammysrecipes.com/tomato_hornworms

Baked a couple loaves of experimental no knead bread this morning in the gas grill. Was OK but not that good because I tried self rising flour with a little wheat flour mixed in with some yeast and spices. All purpose or bread flour really works best. Just to be clear - no hornworms were used in the bread dough.

A Field Lab friend sent me an email right after the dam fail about some programs available through the USDA. I contacted a local branch in Alpine called the NRCS (National Resources Conservation Service) and they are coming out next week to do a site survey for my dam project. I might be able to get technical assistance and funding to restore the dam project though WHIP (Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program). It's a longshot, but if I can grab some Obama dollars before they all run out - no harm in trying. 80,92,66,0,B

17 comments:

You might try throwing your cigarette butts in a jar of water and eventually filter that water with a coffee filter. Then put it in a spray bottle and spray down the tomato plants. I hear that's a deterrent to horn worms. I guess they don't like nicotine? Of course you'd want to wash the tomatoes real well before eating them.

My parents bought a property in East Texas back in the 1970's that benefited from what may be the same or similar government program in order to pay most of the cost of a couple of tanks. Make sure you understand the the regulations prior to meeting them.

We found that putting a a long long nail in the ground at the base of the tomato plant kept those things away . Later started putting a metal coffee can ( both ends removed) over the small plants put a stop to those Horn worms. Never did have to use chemicals for them again.

Don't spray tobacco juice on tomatoes. They are closely related to tobacco and you can spread tobacco mosaic virus to your plants from the tobacco. You need to wash your hands with soap too if you be smok'in before handling tomato plants.

In the Sonoran desert, I have only had a serious number of hornworms the first year tomatoes went in at each home. Very quickly, local birds (here they are thrashers, in the mockingbird family) learn that a free lunch is available, and inspect the plants routinely. From time to time a few tomato sprigs look denuded, but I never see any more hornworms. Hope you'll attract some similar avians!

Catch some horn worms cut them in half and place them up high on a board so the birds can see them. Once they learn they area good source of food they will look for them.Most of the birds there I imagine have never seen a hornworm since there aren't a lot of tomatoes growing in that hard pan.